1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to camera holder apparatus, and, more particularly, to camera holder apparatus for holding a motion picture and/or television camera for three axis movement with respect to an object to be photographed.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Motion picture cameras of the prior art are typically secured to the piston of a centrally located and vertically extending cylinder for vertical movement. The camera is generally also pivotable or rotatable with respect to the cylinder. Another type of camera holder apparatus includes a movable boom to which the camera is secured. The boom pivots in two planes to move vertically and to move in an X-Y plane.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,198,006 discusses camera apparatus used for some types of animation. The apparatus includes a base frame fixed to a specific location with a camera platform movable through a pulley and counterweight system on telescoping tubes. There are different levels secured to the base for holding cels, etc. The camera platform rotates on an X-Y table. The use of pulleys and counterweights doubles the weight of the camera platform and thus increases gravity problems, but is used presumably to help overcome vibration problems.
By eliminating extra weight, such as counterweights, movement of camera turret or camera holder may be speeded up with less power required. Moreover, the lighter the camera turret, the less the effect of inertia forces for the starting and stopping of both vertical and rotational movement.
For animation purposes and for other photographic requirements or purposes, it is highly desirable that a camera is able to be precisely located in three planes, namely an X plane, a Y plane, and a Z or vertical plane. The different types of apparatus of the prior art, as discussed above, have limitations with respect to the precision positioning of a camera, as for example for special effects photography or for animation photography. This is particularly true with respect to the ability, or to the lack of ability, of cameras in the prior art to rotate 360.degree. or more from a fixed location.
It will be noted that with respect to the prior art animation cameras, the teaching of the prior art is that a camera must be mounted on substantially immovable or non-portable columns and that only limited types of movement are possible. That is, a camera must be mounted on, or surrounded and supported by, substantially immovable and non-portable columns which will insure rigidity. The apparatus of the present invention includes a non-rigid and completely freely-mountable structure on which a camera is located. The structure may be used in the studio, it may be taken on location, mounted vertically, or horizontally, etc. The combination thus provides flexibility in a camera and an end result in photography not contemplated nor suggested by the prior art.